Sam's Town

Here’s my two cents on Sam’s Town. I was more of a Hot Fuss fan than K was. There was a time when I played those first five songs off that CD over and over again. Last year I had made my sister-in-law a mix CD that included a remixed version of Somebody Told Me. She told me that when she put it on the first time, my six year old nephew S broke out into the robot. That’s undeniable power!

If I had to choose between the two, I’d go with Hot Fuss. After months of dismissing it, I do love When You Were Young and I have had For Reasons Unknown on infinite loop this week. The rest of the CD falls kind of flat for me. In a recent interview in Blender, Brandon Flowers compared Sam’s Town to U2’s Achtung Baby or Radiohead’s OK Computer. I appreciate the bravado, but Achtung Baby it ain’t. Now there’s a record where a band took a different approach and ended up with unbelievable results.

I don’t like what’s happening with their stage performance with this record either. I saw them a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live and it’s as if Brandon Flowers isn’t quite sure what to do with himself. That’s why he needs the keyboards that were used more heavily on Hot Fuss so he doesn’t have to think about body movement. Yes, I am pushing for keyboards! --J